What's the latest gear you've acquired?

I got something new, for a short time at least—more later, feel like telling a story. 

I visited Vintage King Los Angeles with my friend tonight. My first time, while he’s bought a few things from them. It was their “Pre-NAMM” party, the place was packed—he was invited, but despite having online registration, there was no checking whatsoever, we just walked in. Chris Lord-Alge was hanging out. My friend had to work at getting someone to sell him something—he found out his usual guy no longer works there.

We checked out their Atmos room, then I spotted their mic iso booth. A lone guy was comparing the mics they had set up. He owned one of them, was checking against others. He left, I donned headphones (had the Neumann NDH-20) and stepped up to the mics. Obvious comb filtering on all, clearly something was wrong. The salesman came in to discuss what my friend was looking for, I asked him about the problem, and he said he’d have it checked, and left. But before the door had even closed, I saw that the monitor switcher had a suspicious LED lit, I pressed the button. Mystery of the comb filter solved, the monitor had two paths enabled.

OK, so I finally got to hear the Soyuz 017 Tube. Back in the dark COVID days, I was thinking about looking for a new mic, my friend (same) encouraged me to get a tube mic. I considered a Soyuz 017 Tube, going by listening to the available online audio test and comments. But people liked the FET version, and ultimately I went that way. Going through the mics they had set up, the Soyuz Tube sounded good, it’s obviously a dark mic compared to most there, but it sounded nice, smooth. I was going through them with a mellow vocal, checking for which caught my ear and which didn’t. Obviously, I couldn’t hear how they sit in a track, only whether I thought some aspect of my voice sounded good.

In no particular order…the U67 was possibly tops, but likely only because I’ve lusted to sing through one, I like the U67 sound but had never had access. The Manley Reference Cardioid seemed like a very usable choice, the Gold was that and whole ‘nother level of sparkles. One I liked ended up being the FLEA 47, I liked the UA Bock 167, as I already knew—my friend has one and he’d brought it over a few months back so I could compare it with my 017 FET. I might be leaving one or two out that I liked well enough. A couple of the mics had really low level so I couldn’t give them a fair shake.

OK, for the new gear: My friend wanted a Royer ribbon. I think it might have been the R-121 that he was after (they needed to order), but he also likes to go home with something, so ended up with an R-10 for now, to see if it would do the job (in his Silent Sister, guitar iso cabinet). It ends up he still wants me to try a tube mic, because he bought me a Lauten LA-320. (We’re way-old-time band mates, I manage his computer setups and upgrades, tech stuff, which he hates, he wanted to show his appreciation.) He was looking for a V2, but they only had a demo-return V1 on-hand, he said we could get the V2 later.

But it didn’t go so smoothly. He carried it to the car, and on the way says, hey check this out, it doesn’t seem to weigh enough. Yeah, the box was really light. So, we opened it, no power supply (no case either, I guess the hazards of demo gear). We went back and his guy found the supply (ironically, also very light—apparently a switcher), we were on our way.

It gets worse. We hooked it up, and it had a 60 Hz hum. Definitely from the PS-mic pair. I tossed it back in the box for him to return (he lives near VK, I don’t). And we set up his UA Bock 167 and I did some vocal takes for a tune he’s helping me polish.

Any comments on the LA-320 V2? In addition to the Soyuz (my main vocal mic, currently), I have a C414B-ULS, SM7B. Wondering if maybe the LA-320 will fit the bill for more intimate vocal tracks or something, as a complement to the Soyuz.

Stream Deck XL - brilliant with Cubase Pro 13

Schoeps CMC6 MK4 - really chuffed with this.

Current top of wish list.

A triangle (totally serious) any recommendations?

As insane as this sounds I'd recommend going to your local drum/music store and hitting a couple triangles. Some have nasty overtones or are a really unpleasant pitch

Hmm, needs more cowbell..

Triangle striker is also important.

I've only sang through/tried out the original version of the LA-320.

It was very nice sounding.
(Paul G has suggested upgrading to NOS 5751 in the past)

But...
If you dig the 67 sound, IMHO the Beesneez BU67 MKII is pretty much a No Brainer. I have the MKI and just leave it on the OG 67 style setting-which is a match on my (usual) voice.
Chris
P.S. I loved the OG Soundelux U99.
AFAIK though there were some internal parts changes in the internals... In the UA acquisition.
Plus the BU67 is half the price!

Finally got a Buzz Audio Tonic EQ to try with their Elixir pre --> liking the Tonic so far, a ton of features in a small form factor and sounds GREAT to my ears.

The Buzz Audio Elixir pre is very forgiving, sounds quite natural to my ears but never boring on any given source I've thrown at it. I think the design is unique, as far as I understand, in that it uses fully-differential amplifiers (a technique common in IC chip designs, allows widest signal swing with low power-supply voltages at least without fancy circuit tricks like bootstrapping, DC-DC converters, etc.) and keeps the signal-path balanced throughout but it still uses discrete transistor amplifiers like my favorite solid-state preamps (Neve-style, API, etc.) - and still uses an output transformer.

I predominantly use 19 inch rack gear and mainly bought the 500 series stuff for a portable setup but at this point API units and the Elixir are those that I feel have essentially no compromise between the two. To be fair though, I haven't tried the related Buzz Audio MA-2.2 (but want to!). I can say with certainty that the Elixir is the last of my 500 series pres that I would sell, at this point. Liked it on vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar

So far I own the Elixir preamp (a pair), the Tonic EQ, and the SOC-20 compressor, have heard the Essence at my friends place --> Tim makes some top notch stuff in my opinion.

I do have my eye on some of the Iron Age units too, maybe an Avedis MA5 as well.

EDIT: A bit of a warning though about the Buzz Audio stuff - they require higher current than most 500 series units, careful about the current handling capability of your 500 series rack